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Metropolitan areas with the highest published employment concentrations and wages for this occupation are provided. For a list of all Metropolitan areas with employment in this occupation, see the Create Customized Tables function.

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About May 2005 National, State, and Metropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

These estimates are calculated with data collected from employers in all industry sectors in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas in every State and the District of Columbia. The top five employment and wage figures are provided above. The complete list is available in the downloadable Excel files (XLS).

Percentile wage estimates show the percentage of workers in an occupation that earn less than a given wage and the percentage that earn more. The median wage is the 50th percentile wage estimate--50 percent of workers earn less than the median and 50 percent of workers earn more than the median. More about percentile wages.

(1) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.

(2) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.

(3) The relative standard error (RSE) is a measure of the reliability of a survey statistic. The smaller the relative standard error, the more precise the estimate.

Out of about 8 nearby counties here in Northern Calif, Sacramento is the second highest paying county for entry level ACOs. (this was the counties that I check that are next to or within 1 hours driving distance of Sacramento,in the Sacramento Valley/ Foothills area). I believe that Placer County was the highest paying (left my notes at work).

Cost of living in my town: 206% of national average.
ACP wages in my town: 156% of national average.
ACO wages compared to median wages in my town: 56%

If I'm reading you right, Mark, the provenance of these calculations is as follows:

Cost of living: can't find the website again, but it compared cities against a national average (tabulated as 100%). Didn't have Vallejo, where I live, but had San Francisco, which is not much higher. Rent for 1 brm apartments runs 900 - 1300 a month here, depending on the neighborhood. With pets, generally runs considerably higher.

ACO wages to median wages: median wage in my jurisdiction is slightly above $100K; compared that to my wage (with overtime) of $42K, and got the result, which come to think of it is low .... should be 42% ish. (Wonder what I did wrong.)

Just for comparison, rent and water, gas, electric, and phone run about $1350 a month for me, but I have a pretty cheap place in an iffy neighborhood. I don't carry TV cable ($80/mo) but I do have DSL ($40/mo).

Does that help?

__________________
Winnie

It's not what we have in our life, but who we have in our life that counts. (J.M. Lawrence)